$3bn roads bonus to come with Sydney’s second airport

Prime Minister Tony Abbott will ­promise western Sydney a roads package worth almost $3 billion as the ­federal government’s contribution to a giant infrastructure package which will have as its centrepiece a new, privately funded airport at Badgerys Creek.

Drawing a line under decades of ­procrastination by governments of both persuasions, the federal cabinet gave the green light on Tuesday for the construction of a second Sydney Airport on the site set aside by the Hawke government in 1986.

The Sydney Airport Corporation, which has two years to exercise its first right of refusal and decide whether it wants to build the new airport, was unenthusiastic about the proposal and maintained that there was sufficient capacity at Mascot.

“Sydney Airport’s approved master plan 2033 shows that we can meet forecast demand of 74 million passengers in 2033,’’ it said in a statement.

Mr Abbott and his Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss said they wanted Sydney Airport Corporation to decide within about 12 months – not two years – whether to exercise its first right of refusal.

“If they choose not to do so, then that opportunity will be offered to others,’’ Mr Truss said.

Based on a 2012 study commissioned by the former Labor government, Mr Abbott estimated the airport would cost $2.5 billion to build. He said the vast majority of that would be met by the ­private sector while the federal government will build the roads to service the airport.

State to build rail link

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NSW Liberal Premier Barry O’Farrell, who has dropped his long-standing opposition to a second airport in the Sydney basin, will be prevailed upon to build an urban rail link to service the airport. This could be funded by ­privatising a state-owned asset under the recently minted deal in which the Commonwealth would contribute an extra 15 per cent of the asset sale price to the new project.

Mr Abbott envisaged airport construction to begin in 2016 and for it to be fully operational in a decade.

The Commonwealth’s $3 billion contribution to roads, to be announced on Wednesday and designed to head off concerns about increased congestion, will be included in the May budget and extend beyond the four-year budget cycle.

Peak business groups including the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Industry Group welcomed the announcement, as did shadow transport minister Anthony Albanese.

As minister in the former Labor government, Mr Albanese fought for a ­second Sydney airport, warning that increasing congestion at the nation’s busiest airport was posing a threat to national growth and productivity.

Mr Albanese, who has long believed privately that Badgerys Creek was the best site for a second airport, gave in-principle support to Mr Abbott’s announcement pending a party discussion once the details are released.

The airport proposal has the potential to split both major parties with MPs in Western Sydney generally opposed on the basis of increased traffic congestion, noise and other effects.

To assuage these concerns, Mr Abbott said the airport would create 60,000 new jobs in Western Sydney when fully operational and he assured residents the roads would be built before the airport.

“The government’s approach will be roads first, airport second, because we don’t want the people of western Sydney to have to have an airport without having the decent transport infrastructure that western Sydney deserves,’’ he said.

However, Mr Abbott said the new airport would not have a curfew, which is another key concern in western Sydney.

Curfew calls

Western Sydney Liberal MPs Alex Hawke and Fiona Scott have called for the new airport to have a curfew, as have Labor’s Ed Husic and Michelle Rowland.

But it is believed a curfew would render the new airport commercially unviable as it would rely on spillover traffic from Sydney Airport as well as freight flights.

“We want this to be a jobs generator. We want this to be efficient economic infrastructure that maximises benefits to all Australians,’’ Mr Abbott said.

He added that just 4000 people lived in the Badgerys noise footprint compared with 130,000 in the Sydney airport footprint.

Mr Truss said “the modern aircraft are so much quieter than all of those that preceded them’’.

Mr Husic said if that were the case, then the curfew should be lifted at Sydney Airport as well.

Both he and Ms Rowland questioned why Sydney’s eastern suburbs residents were entitled to a curfew and those in the west were not.

Mr Husic said if the 60,000 jobs were realised, the airport would be as large as Los Angeles International.

“It’s either a small airport with no curfew or a big airport with a lot of jobs,’’ he said

Ms Rowland also wanted guarantees that western Sydney residents and tertiary graduates would be guaranteed work.

“I don’t just want the people of ­western Sydney to be flipping the burgers,’’ she said.

“They should also have access to the construction jobs, the hi-tech and logistics.’’

Despite having taken the decision to proceed with the airport, Mr Abbott said he would still have the project, along with the associated roads, assessed by Infrastructure Australia, and update the old environmental impact statement.

But he added the need for a second airport had been “studied to death’’ and “we want to get cracking".

‘An abundance of study’

“All the studies show that without a second airport, Sydney will be grievously underserved within a few decades," he said.

“There’s been an abundance of study and an absence of political will. We won’t short-circuit the process but we aren’t going to draw it out either," he said.

A group of 10 western Sydney ­councils, which has been pushing for the construction of the city’s second ­airport at Badgerys Creek, issued a report last year which found 287 houses would need to be acquired and another 2000 soundproofed for the airport to go ahead.

Most houses are in the Liverpool region.

Mr Truss said he didn’t anticipate a significant impact on privately owned properties but there were a “large number’’ of leases that would need to be dealt with. Most were temporary, given the likelihood the site was going to become an airport.

Mr Abbott and Mr Truss said it would be up to the airlines which services they shifted to the new airport.

Qantas
was happy with the decision.

“Qantas has long supported the building of a second airport at Badgerys Creek, as have a number of detailed studies. After decades of debate, we applaud today’s announcement by the prime minister," said chief executive
Alan Joyce
.
Virgin Australia Holdings
was lukewarm.

“We agree that there is a need for a second Sydney airport. However, our immediate focus is increasing the ­utility of Kingsford Smith Airport,’’ it said in a statement.

“For example, we believe that there is scope to relax the hourly flight cap and enable greater flexibility in the curfew shoulder periods between 5am and 6am, and 11pm and midnight.’’